Dissociation and hallucinations in dyads engaged through interpersonal gazing

The ‘not-so-strange’ body in the mirror: A principal components analysis of direct and mirror self-observation

“…Our results imply that body dysmorphic beliefs relate to greater unusual perceptions per se, and not just when looking in a mirror. In support of this view, previous studies have also found body dysmorphic beliefs to relate to unusual perceptions when viewing the face of another person (Caputo, 2013b(Caputo, , 2015. Individual differences in delusion ideation were also found to relate to reported unusual perceptual experiences in both conditions.…”

“…from a first-person perspective), it is unclear whether it is the third-person view of the face (provided by a mirror or video) that creates the unusual perceptual experiences in the strange face illusion, or simply viewing oneÕs own face. Indeed strange-face-illusion-type experiences have been reported when participants are staring at the face of another person (Caputo, 2013b(Caputo, , 2015, which may indicate that it is not the mirror, but the face that is important for these face-based illusions. However, with a lack of an adequate control condition, and generally low sample sizes, it is difficult to interpret these reports of mirror and interpersonal strange-face illusions.…”

Things That Go Bump in the Literature: An Environmental Appraisal of “Haunted Houses”

“…However, there was a suggestive trend (p < 0.07, two-tailed) for the control house (M = 3.57, SD = 3.10) to contain more mirrors than the target house (M = 1.00, SD = 1.41). This finding might seem surprising and counterintuitive, since mirrors and reflective surfaces in general are associated with anomalous experiences (Caputo, 2010a(Caputo, ,b, 2013(Caputo, , 2015(Caputo, , 2016(Caputo, , 2017(Caputo, , 2019Caputo et al, 2012). This correlation offers several interpretations.…”

Theory of Mind: Towards an Evolutionary Theory

“…Even though they do interact with other cognitive processes their appearance and development is mostly predetermined and self-contained. The third hint is that manipulating visual attention can lead to hypnotic phenomena (Raz 2005;Caputo 2015). The key, however, to understanding the evolutionary origin of ToM is the realization that visual attention is not an innocuous activity but, rather, an activity centrally implicated in the handling of threat and danger (Chance 1967;Emery 2000).…”

“…This relationship has wide-ranging consequences. For example, sustained attention coupled with monotonous stimulation can trigger various dissociative phenomena, from everyday mind wandering (Wegner 1997;Biever and Karinch 2012) and ordinary drowsiness (Thiffault and Bergeron 2003;Sallinen et al 2004) to highway hypnosis (Miles 1929;Williams 1963) and perceptual hallucinations (Caputo 2015). 27 An iconic example of this relationship is offered by hypnosis.…”